The fire then consumes excess wood, twigs, leaves and other organic material so that if/when a natural wildfire takes to the landscape the protentional severity, the heat at which it burns, the pace at which it moves and damage done to the forest are greatly diminished. It is usually ignited in a control way on a landscape and allowed to burn across an area ranging 1 to 1000s of acres. Broadcast burning is one of two types of prescribed fire. Eliminating fuels on the surface also makes it harder for wildfires to climb high up into the forest canopy, resulting in a slower moving, less intense fire on the forest floor.įorest Service officials in Colorado conduct a prescribed burn in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests on June 6, 2016. These low-intensity, controlled fires remove the excess fuels that would enable wildfires to burn hotter and longer. Broadcast burning is when dead wood and vegetation on the forest floor are ignited by trained personnel. They conducted what is known to firefighters as a broadcast burn. White and his team had treated the area surrounding the Shambhala Mountain Center 5 years earlier. “But what is clear, by making sure that burnable materials are scarce we can mitigate these fires’ level of intensity.” “It’s hard to know how much further the fire would have spread, if not for that treated area,” White said. The fire lost its intensity and became manageable to the point that firefighters could get in front and get it under control. The fire crossed over into an area of land nearly a mile wide where the forest floor had been treated to remove excess vegetation. But then, as the fire drew near, something interesting happened. The Cameron Peak Fire was blazing, moving quickly toward the temple with flames that towered over the landscape as it approached. Many forest treatments occurred on the land surrounding the mountain center which resulted in reduced fire behavior and may have ultimately saves structures in the area. The Stupa at the Shambhala Mountain Center, surrounded by partially burned forest left behind from the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire. One case involved a Buddhist temple, the Shambhala Mountain Center, on a piece of private property surrounded by the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests. By removing excess fuel and overgrowth a wildfire's potential for extreme and dangerous activity is diminished, said White. Those past treatments involved removing excess wood, also known as fuel, from the forest floor. How areas that had been treated by federal, state, and private land managers served as a buffer to dampen the intensity of the fire and slow its spread. He watched as the intense flames moved from the ground up into the canopy traveling quickly across the landscape and leaving mostly scorched earth in its wake.īut White also recalled some success stories from that fire. White, who worked on the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests to contain the Cameron Peak Fire, witnessed that extreme fire behavior. It’s too dangerous,” said James White, a fuels management specialist at the Forest Service with over 25 years of experience in fire management. “When the fire moves like that, it’s not something you want to get in front of, to try to stop. These once uncommon megafires, characterized by extreme fire behavior, are becoming more frequent and exacerbated by climate change and warmer/ drier temperatures. The 2020 Cameron Peak Fire, burned for nearly four months, spanning 208,913 acres across state, federal and private lands. At least that was the case with the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire, which burned for nearly four months, spanning 208,913 acres across state, federal and private lands. They are hot, and they are hard to fight. These once uncommon megafires are becoming more frequent and exacerbated by climate change and warmer/ drier temperatures.Īccording to National Interagency Fire Center data, the top 10 years with the most burned acreage have all occurred since 2004, coinciding with the warmest years on record nationwide. In the most extreme cases, wildfires can burn as hot as 2200 degrees Fahrenheit, with flames over 150 feet tall, and can consume entire football fields of wildland within seconds. This a story about the latter and how government agencies and private landowners came together to mitigate the damage of Colorado’s largest wildfire on record-the Cameron Peak Fire. The Joint Chiefs' Landscape Restoration Partnership between the Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service aims to restore landscapes, protect water quality, enhance habitat, and reduce wildfire threats to communities and landowners across the country.
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